Since Santa has been really nice to me lately I thought I might ask for one more thing. I have always wanted to be a super hero. I've been thinking about it long and hard trying to come up with a really good name. Got it.


I will now be Iron Stomach Man. I would be able to eat nails and spit out rivets. Nothing could stop me with the ability to eat anything I saw. I would be bursting with energy and never ever get a cramp. Ya, ok, a few of you have lined up beside me at a race. I sound like I should be curled over praying to a porcelain god after a bender the night before. I probably was.

I've been trying to find a fuel that my stomach can handle. I've been using Infinit's product for a while now and love it. In the past I've been using a sport drink and eating gels during long races and mixing in some sustained energy. Well it' works but it's alot of playing around with mixes for sodium, calories and biggest thing taste.

I've never been able to drink anything at it's recommended mix rate because it is just overkill in taste. That is not the case anymore. Depending on your needs you would have to either add more or less of a scoop to your bottle. With Infinit you design the mix ratio to your body before you order it.

I've been using the premixed stuff for the indoor season and it's awesome. The 5 hour mix has 250 calories in it, what does that mean. No gels needed. So simple. For the hard trainer sessions I've been using the 2 hour race mix which is really easy on my stomach but giving my body everything it needs.


Just to make people nervous I also have their Jet Fuel mix. The name gives you an idea. Caffeine is mixed in there. Yep, I'm like a five year old who just ate a box of chocolate bars. This will be my secret weapon next year. You will know I'm on it because I will probably be a little twitchy while lining up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEXzx-TINc

So here is the big thing with this stuff. My wonderfully screwed up stomach really likes it. Check out the options at the link to the right. If you are really nice and ask Santa maybe I can send you a link so you get 10% off.

I'm off the bike for the next few days, this is a very crazy time of year for work. For some reason people want their appliance all working for Christmas dinner. The interesting part of it is that alot of them broke a few months ago but it wasn't important to them back then.

That's it for now.

All I want for Christmas

It's Christmas time and I have been a good boy. I sent my letter to Santa with my one big Christmas wish.

A pony. All I really want is a pony, I have the yard for a pony now. Wouldn't you like a pony?

Well I think Santa had a talk with the Ruppel brothers and they voiced their concerns.




Did I mention that I wanted to ride the pony at Summer Solstice next year. I think the conversation went a little like this.

Spak wants what? He wants to ride it at our 24 hour race. What type of drugs are they mixing with his EPO?? I actually think Sean would be a little more willing.

I guess the additional speed bumps the pony would leave on the trail would give me some sort of advantage. Come on, the pony could bonk, and probably wouldn't go downhill as fast as everyone else. Where is the advantage?? As for single track skills I guess I will never get a chance to find out.

Well Santa made a couple phone calls and the wonderful people at Giant stepped up to keep a kid happy on Christmas morning. Christmas morning came a few weeks early this year. Told you I was a good boy this year.

Next season I will be playing with 2 Giant Anthem X1's. This is a set up for them this season with the bas design coming of the Trance. This is a 4 x 4, literally with 4 inch travel front and rear. It was a pretty easy decision going with the X1 over the X0. Biggest difference between the two bikes are the wheels and drivetrain. Well I already have a couple pairs of Crossmax's. A wheel I love and I have so much Sram stuff I could use there was no point.

The X1 comes with XT/XTR. I have been a Sram fan for the last couple years but I don't think I will be changing things on this bike. Shimano has really stepped up their components this year. Dave from Georgian Cycle flat out said lets try it out as it sits. He too is really impressed with the new changes. I do like the options on the shifter to either thumb or trigger.

Suspension is covered by a Fox Float RP2 in the rear. Giant has changed their setup this year with a square down tube which increase structural strength, Up front is a RockShox Sid Team.



Right out of the box with all reflectors etc on it the bike was 24.58 lbs. That's with the stock WTB/Mavic wheel set which is a nice build but still heavier than the SLR's I've yet to weigh the bikes since the wheel swaps but to see close to 24 lbs flat.

It will be a while before I get a chance to play on either of them. Central Ontario is under about 2.5 plus feet of snow. It's also been crazy cold until this morning. With temperatures just below the freezing mark this morning I couldn't turn down a chance to get an outdoor ride in. The trainer is one thing but that wonderful feeling of coasting was needed. It was also an attempt to pedal the pain out of my legs from the wattage workout out on Friday night. Was able to push an hour and a half out of my toes before they yelled at me to head in.

Later

Yo Adrian

I'm on the Rocky Balboa active recovery training schedule. While all my competition is working away in the gym and trainer I've gone to brute grunt work training mode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDko7Utfqdg


Moving fire wood from the driveway to the house is a little more demanding that one may think. Spent an hour and a half going back an forth with a sled tonight. Hey if it worked for Rocky. He beat the big Russian. Hmmm I should start checking now, as long as they are Russian I'm going to beat them hands down. I wonder if there are any 24 hour races in Russia??

The wattage work out yesterday was tough. 4x 4 minutes 85 percent intervals followed by a 10 minute recovery section. Then do it again. Interestingly enough I felt better in the last couple reps than near the beginning. Kinda like the way I race. Go out hard, blow up, then come back.

Yes there is a bike review coming on the Anthem's. Maybe tomorrow.

I wonder if Apollo Creed is available for support crew next year?

Later

Cruel and unusual punishment

The winter weapon of choice? Unfortunately its an inside toy. This winter will be a new training routine for me. Heather has me training with power, that means something new to hurt myself with. Self inflicted pain by ways of the Tacx Flow wattage trainer.

I looked into a couple different options for power training. SRM cranks are sweet but also have a nasty price tag. Power tap was another option but that restricted me to one bike, I still may look into a wheel eventually. The final option was the trainer. Two companies to look into, Computrainer which is a great unit. I've used Heather's a few times and like it. Tacx is the other. Now since I really don't need to play video games while riding I opted for the Flow.

The display is great and adjustments are easy to do with the increments going up in 10 watt jumps. A cadence sensor is also included. There are a few more options but i have yet to really play with it.

The one perk over the computrainer is the price. About $700 less. That was a major decision maker for me since I didn't need all the additional options that the other trainers offered.

The workout yesterday was hard, I never realized how long each second really is when you are at the upper end of you threshold. This is endurance intervals but they still hurt alot.

With the 3 feet of snow outside it looks like all my bike time will be spent on that little white torture device. That means I don't get to play with these for a few more months.



Orange is the new fast? More on them a little later. Relax time

Later

connected again

Talk about withdrawal. The longest week of my life with no Internet. Where to begin, so much has happened in the last week. I'm in the new house. Lets just say that I have zero motivation to move for a long time. Who are these lunatic people that turn over houses and move every couple years. Even for the money I wouldn't do it again.

I guess that hints how the move when. The movers were scheduled for the afternoon and were supposed to call an hour ahead of time. Ya that didn't happen. I was just leaving my place with a loaded wagon with bikes on the roof when I see a moving truck heading in the direction of the house. 5 minutes after 12. Well they did say afternoon. Had I I been 5 minutes faster out the door I would have missed them.

Of course I had already been up for 8 hours at this point and full of coffee. Hey I was excited and was awake at 4am. Wouldn't you be? I was well beyond my normal strung out wired self so sitting and watching these guys load a truck was not enjoyable for me. Oh and at $120 an hour I obviously wanted them hauling ass.

I didn't realize I had as much stuff as I did, that or they managed to make it look like I did. It was kinda interesting watching the biggest guy in the crew carrying the smallest loads. Finally loaded up, 3 hours later, yep longer than estimated by the quote giver, we were on route to the new place. Forgot to mention that they couldn't get everything in the truck. Ya, as i mentioned I didn't think I had that much stuff.

Unloading wasn't much better. At least I was able to do some unpacking and sorting. No they did not move any of my bikes. I'm brave but not stupid. Another 3.5 hours later and now putting some beer into my system the truck was empty. I swear the movers were the fastest in the last 15 minutes of it. I managed to get another couple hours of unpacking in. It's amazing how beer can keep you moving, maybe I should try that at the next 24 hour. Hey Matt, Infinit Rep, can you do some sort of mix of Alexander Keith's in to my formula??

Of course I was completely exhausted the next day, didn't stop me from doing more unpacking. This all added to the fun of things. Sunday was my power test. I had some ideas of what the results would be. My quads have never hurt so much at the upper end of the test. I was down in top end wattage, kinda understandable, but every other part of it was up. Heather based my training on these numbers for the month.

Yep the Tacx Flow is setup and I'm training with wattage this year. Yep, it's also going to hurt but the results in the end should be great. My bikes are here also but that along with a review on the Tacx will be later.

The house is great, the Molly Monster and Oakley the fat cat are already at home and shedding like normal. I've found out that I already have two great neighbours, one has even snowplowed most of my driveway twice. Trust me that's a bonus since it's about 200 feet long plus the parking area. We have been hammered with snow almost every day and have a good 2-3 feet already. Yep no outdoor riding.

Alright time to go ride the vomit comet on the puke machine. 1.5 hour interval session today.

Later